Thermaltake BlacX Hard Drive Docking Station

Introduction:

Every now and then we at TechwareLabs come across a truly unique or excellent product. The BlacX by Thermaltake is such a product. Our first look at the BlacX provoked the response "Now that's cool, there's a truly useful product". The BlacX is perfect for the enthusiast or consumer with multiple hard drives. Its also perfect for the IT tech who needs to quickly access data. Think of the BlacX as a super swappable hard drive enclosure. No need to have multiple hard drive enclosures, or turn off then open your PC and install the drive then turn the PC back on and wait for it to boot. Hit the power button , pop in the drive, push the power button again and your good to go. Not the drive you were looking for? No problem pop it out and plug in the next candidate.

Those with a keen eye have noticed that the BlacX is marketed as a docking station and not an enclosure. This is the best and most accurate description for the BlacX which is not an enclosure. The mounting system is entirely new and simply holds the drive in place for you to access the information before you are ready to swap it out for another drive. You can eject the drive in one of two ways, pushing the eject button or simply pulling the drive free. We suggest the use of the eject button to avoid problems.

Lets take a quick look at the specifications on the BlacX.

Specifications:

Model

N0028USU

Interface

SATA to USB 2.0

Transfer Rate

Up to 480 Mbps (Max)

SATA Compatible

SATA I & II

HDD Compatible

All 2.5” or 3.5” SATA HDD up to 1TB

OS Compatible

Windows Vista / XP / 2003 / 2000 / NT / 98 / 95 Mac 10.3 and later

RoHS Compliance

Yes

Material

ABS Plastic

Power

Input: 100-240V / 50-60Hz / 1A ; Output: 12V / 2A

Dimension: (L x W x H)

5.12” x 3.55” x 2.56” / 130 x 90 x 65 mm

As mentioned earlier the BlacX is offered in three different variations, the one we are checking out here is the universal USB type that accepts SATA I and SATA II drives. Additionally the BlacX is offered in a USB and eSATA as well as the BlacX-SE which adds in a USB hub and 4 additional USB ports as well as a slightly different design.

BlacX USB

BlacX USB & eSATA

BlacX SE

As you can see the BlacX USB and the BlacX USB and eSATA share an identical design with the exception of an additional eSATA port located on the rear.